General Overview: Finally, we get to that “Boreal Valley”—or at least one part of it—we’ve been hearing about and it’s frankly kind of beautiful, in a pre-industrial England sort of way, like Central Yharnam sans the dead bodies and pitchfork-mobs. I just hope you took out the Deacons of the Deep before coming here or…

General Overview: Did you think that you might finally make your way to the fabled Irithyll after cutting your way through the Abyss Watchers? Well, you were worng. Instead, your next stop is a series of catacombs, which is different from DS1's catacombs, because these ones are 100% more “of Carthus”. This area has…

The Title Card: The cutscene that plays when you first encounters tells you two things about them: 1) they are quick, savage combatants and 2) they’ve possibly gone mad. More specifically, their dedication to their cause—rooting out the corruption of the Abyss—has taken on a distinctly Highlander vibe:

General Overview: The titular cathedral at the heart of this area is big enough to house giants, which is good because it does. Before you get there, you’ll have quite the trek to make: past a gauntlet of hounds and archers to the chapel, through a graveyard full of gross leech creatures, and up to the cathedral…

The Title Card: This one’s a wizard with a capital “Wiz”: big floppy hat, flowing robes, magic staff. Specifically, this sorcerer (and several of his followers in the surrounding area) apes the style and teachings of DS1's Big Hat Logan...so the player is going to have to dodge a lot of white spell-shit before this…

General Overview: Though the name suggests a Bob Dylan deep cut, this is actually a winding route that leads through a treacherous stretch of woods, past a crab-filled (more about that in a bit!) swamp, and into a ruined keep.

[What this is: Occasionally, I may run into an issue with the Dark Souls 3 that just doesn’t fit into my usual DS3DD posts, so this is my place to talk about those issues so they don’t keep me up at nights.]

The Title Card: This giant animate tree is an optional boss that gives you the McGuffin that lets you turn boss souls into boss loot. Think of the ents from Tolkein’s ouevre, but evil and full of egg-sacs.

General Overview: You’ve been to the Undead Asylum, the Undead Burg, and the Undead Parish, but how about the Undead Settlement! This sprawling, rural collection of cottages and farmhouses is a rustic backdrop for a collective of peasant hollows more than willing to show you first-hand how their farm implements work.

The Title Card: Another shake-up of the “big dude in armor” formula! The sizable fellow attacks the player while crouching on all fours! There’s something weird about him;real people don’t do that, right?

Design Notes: Turning a knight-type boss and making him move like a beast-type boss is an interesting idea. When…

General Overview: At first blush, this might remind a series vet of the Undead Burg from DS1, with its castle-like setting and regular hollow patrols along a bunch of towers and parapets. However, there is an important distinction to be made: its party-crashing dragon/wyvern comes much earlier in the level. And, hey,…

The Title Card: It’s a big guy in an enormous set of armor, wielding a halberd. Over your all-too-brief time with this imposing lug, he yields too important surprises: 1) that he is still “alive” (the sword thrust through his chest was merely holding him in place) and 2) he is full of a sentient black goo that erupts…

General overview: As the name alludes to, it is a decaying cemetery from which our hero emerges. It is, for the most part, a short, winding path with a few short branches coming off it. With only a few basic enemy types to contend with on the main path, this functions as the tutorial area, a compressed,…

Hi, anyone who is bothering to read this! Since I usually either miss or arrive too late to the Friday “What Are You Playing This Weekend?” thread, I thought I’d start a series of posts under my profile about my reaction to the game’s area and boss design. It should be noted that I have no professional design…